Huobi’s HT Token Crashes 93% Before Recovering

New Huobi owner Justin Sun claims that HT’s 93% crash is “normal” price volatility and has pledged to implement measures to prevent a repeat.

15m Chart of HT/USDT on Huobi at 09:15 AM on March 10, 2023

Update at Noon on March 10, 2023:

Huobi’s new owner, Justin Sun, has deposited $100 million USDC onto Huobi to bolster liquidity on the exchange, as previously promised.

Sun’s swift action aims to calm user concerns following the HT token's dramatic price movement on the morning of March 10.

Original Article:

In the crypto market dump early on March 10, Huobi’s native HT token plummeted from $4.71 to $0.31 on the exchange platform, surprising investors.

As the broader crypto market was in decline, HT’s price on Huobi began to drop from around 03:30 AM. However, by approximately 04:00 AM, HT’s price crashed from $4.71 to $0.31 in just 15 minutes before quickly recovering to its previous levels.

As of the time of this writing, HT is still down about 20% compared to 24 hours ago.

The 93% crash in HT was also recorded on other platforms listing the token, such as KuCoin and Gate.io, but the price drops were less severe, stabilizing around $1 before recovery, unlike the drastic fall seen on Huobi.

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According to data analytics firm Kaiko, the crash was caused by an imbalance between buy and sell orders for HT on Huobi. Specifically, in the 5 minutes before the drop, the buy wall for HT was only $600,000, while the total sell orders amounted to $2 million.

TRON founder Justin Sun, who is rumored to have spent $1 billion to acquire Huobi in October 2022, addressed the situation on Twitter. Sun stated that HT’s crash was a result of market volatility, leading to the liquidation of a number of HT derivative positions and causing a “snowball effect.” He assured that all of Huobi’s functions remain secure and that there were no platform errors.

Sun apologized to affected users and promised to take measures to improve liquidity on Huobi, starting with the establishment of a $100 million fund to support HT and other top cryptocurrencies, as well as enhancements to the liquidation warning system.

On-chain data tracker Nansen later discovered that Sun had withdrawn $60 million in stablecoins from Huobi over the past 24 hours and transferred it to the DeFi protocol Aave. However, Sun clarified that this was merely a coincidence and part of a routine capital rotation strategy.

HT is currently the 67th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, standing at $635 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of $47 million.

In contrast, Huobi's spot trading volume over the past day reached $741 million, placing it 16th in the market. For futures, the exchange ranks 18th with a 24-hour trading volume of $2.8 billion.